


Family comes in all shapes and sizes.

by Werepirechick



Category: Pacific Rim (Movies), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Bay Movies), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: Adopted Sibling Relationship, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Baby Kaiju, Big Sisters, Family, Feral Behavior, Gen, Government Experimentation, Hurt/Comfort, Illustrated, Kaiju, Little Brothers, black april o'neil, pacific rim 2 still happens but like, they start as babies but the timeline will be all over the place, they're aliens and have weird habits lmao, this is way far off from those happenings, those are to come, whenever my bud has time
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-28
Updated: 2018-08-22
Packaged: 2019-04-13 23:45:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 10,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14123436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Werepirechick/pseuds/Werepirechick
Summary: To defeat your enemy, you have to first understand them.Someone within the American government takes this to a new level, and creates Project Renaissance shortly after the war is over. Four lab grown, genetically altered Kaiju for study and observation, in hopes of better combating any future Kaiju attacks.They didn't intend for the subjects to develop into cognitive beings. Or for April O'Neil to essentially adopt all four of them.





	1. do kaiju even like apples?

**Author's Note:**

> most of the PR fandom focuses on the drift and mind melds and fun robot combat, but personally speaking i'm here for the xenobiology of alien war machines.
> 
> this is my first fic for the bayverse kids? sort of. i fused it a little with 2012 and 2018 tmnt, since i wanted black april and the trashiness of my favorite version of casey. its complicated but please, bear with me for the sake of pocket-sized kaiju shenanigans.
> 
> chronology is fake, and i'll probably post whatever i feel like writing. fill in the blanks yourselves, or hmu with questions over on my tumblr. art credit to rhi-draws-things on tumblr, or raynefall here on ao3.
> 
> also i might change the name at some point, if i can think of something better lmao.

April is pretty sure she should have stuck it out at school, and just slept in the nurse’s office.

At least then she would have had an actual bed, rather than be stuck in a hard plastic chair and drowsing while the base’s occupants ran around like kicked ants. Apparently something of the top secret project April knew next to nothing about (hence the ‘top secret’ part of things) had escaped, and everyone had gone zero to sixty in an instant the moment sirens went off.

April had found herself shoved into the nearest staff room, told to lock the door, and not to move until someone came and got her. She’d been expecting that her dad would just look over some documents too important to put off, and then they’d go home so she could sleep off her fever.

No such luck. The sirens outside of her meagrely furnished staff room are still droning, and April is falling asleep despite the awful chair. At least someone lent her a coat at some point, and she’s only shivering a little in the oversized thing.

Her unfinished lunch remains in its baggy near her face, as she leans forward with her cheek pressed to the table. She’d tried to convince herself again to eat, since getting better requires energy, but hasn’t had much luck. It drifts in and out of focus as her eyes get heavier, and giving in, April just lets the fever drag her under into a light nap.

The sirens aren’t enough to keep her awake, or even make her panic longer than the first minute they’d been going.  She knows they’re not for a Kaiju attack, and even if they were, she’s  _inside_  a military base. There are no active Jaegers here, but there’s some just up the coastline of New York. She’s safe as she could get, outside of a Kaiju shelter.

And, she’s sick. Being sick makes it easier to just not care.

April naps for a period of time she doesn’t remember, and doesn’t rouse again even after the alarms are turned off. She doesn’t notice they have been, and doesn’t know it’s simply because everyone got sick of listening to them while hunting for the escaped subject.

April doesn’t hear the door’s lock be broken from the inside, and doesn’t hear it open and shut with a quiet noise. What she does hear, oddly enough, is the sound of someone messing with  _her_  uneaten sandwich.

April blearily opens her eyes, too hot and too cold at the same time, and  _really_ annoyed with whatever’s woken her back up to that.

Three claws are sunk into the tip of her sandwich’s baggy, and four wide eyes stare back at her, just over the lip of the table.

The four gold eyes blink at her. April blinks her two blue ones a few times to confirm its real.

She screams.

The owner of the four eyes screams back, and runs away.

April nearly falls out of her chair, scrambling away from the table and the  _thing_ with all the coordination possible of a sick individual. She runs into another crappy chair and  _does_  fall over, yelping as she goes down.

There’s a dizzying moment, worsened by her illness, in which everything spins in terrible circles. April finally recovers enough to gingerly sit back up; half convinced she’s just had a hallucination.

But, no. That’s definitely a pintsized Kaiju scrabbling around on the linoleum across the room from her.

“Oh my god,” April whispers in horror, and then jumps with a shriek as the creature hisses balefully at her.

She untangles her legs from the chair’s, and manages to get to her feet and press against the wall of the room. April is hyperventilating a little, watching the tiny  _Kaiju_ pace and snarl on the other end of their shared space.

It’s between her and the coatracks, where she hung her backpack earlier. Her backpack contains her cellphone, which is what she  _needs_ ,  _right this instant,_  so she can call her dad and the army and if they have one an indoor Jaeger because  _oh my fucking god, that’s a Kaiju._

A really.

Really.

Small Kaiju.

It’s about the size of an overly large housecat, with a long, strong looking tail whipping around behind it as it paces. Purple spots of bioluminescence follow the length of its body, which cause a bit of nausea to look at when it keeps moving so quickly, and April is still very sick feeling.

The segmented plates on its back almost look like a shell, April thinks distantly. Like a turtle and a dragon and a cattish thing all got mixed together.

It stands up on two legs then, walking perfectly fine like that. April amends and changes the cattish part to lemurish, maybe even humanish. It’s the tail that’s really the tipping point, making the walk ever so slightly abnormal in its gait.

April is very, very dizzy. Oof. Everything is spinning even while she’s still leaning against the wall. Couldn’t the tiny Kaiju have chosen to terrorize her on a day when she  _wasn’t_  ill? Is that too much to ask from fate, given that the war was supposed to be  _over?_

“…I guess you’re the one everyone’s looking for,” April says faintly, mostly to herself. The little Kaiju shrieks and hops away to press against the far wall, pacing and tittering nervously. And it is nervous, April is realizing. If she hadn’t known better, she’d almost think the little thing is as scared as she feels at the moment.

But Kaiju are city destroying titans, not afraid even when a Jaeger is thundering towards them. It wouldn’t make sense for even a tiny one to be afraid of a sick teenage girl.

Oh, but this one really is awfully small. April could probably hold it with one arm if she tried.

April reminds herself to focus. Thoughts like that are for after she’s certain she isn’t going to get mauled.

The little Kaiju is eyeing her, but also- as April notices the break of focus every couple seconds- the table April had been sleeping at.

April looks at the sandwich on the table.

She formulates a plan.

Taking a careful step forwards, April starts to move towards the table. She’s nearly startled backwards all over again when the Kaiju makes a leap towards her, only for it to back off immediately. It’s hissing and spitting, but really, it’s just making a show instead of real threats.

The coatrack is directly above where the Kaiju is pacing. April slowly picks up her sandwich.

“Hey, little… guy,” April settles on the addressment, since it’s better than  _spawn of world destroyers_  or the like. “Do you want some food?”

The Kaiju watches her warily, but has stopped shrieking every time she moves. It’s clearly torn between following her and the sandwich at the same time; intent gold eyes boring holes into both.

April opens the bag slowly, and takes out half the sandwich.

“Here… look, its fake bologna and lettuce. Mmm, right? Really tasty, I promise. Fake processed meat is about the same as actual processed meat in nutrients anyway.”

The Kaiju inches forwards in half steps, eyes darting between her face and the treat. April takes a chance and tosses the triangle of food onto the floor in front of it.

The food is snapped up immediately, and in an act of definitely inhuman physiology, the sandwich piece disappears into the Kaiju’s mouth. April sees the hinges of its jawline open wider than a human’s would, or even most animals. She gulps quietly at the rows of sharp teeth it has, which flash as it chews noisily.

It’s looking at her now less with fear, more with curiosity. And it’s moving away from the coatrack. Good. April takes out the other half of the sandwich, and figures she can blame her illness for making her think this next step is a good plan.

“You gotta come and take this one from me, dude,” she tells it softly, holding out the sandwich halve and bending down a little. “C’mon… I’m probably not the one who’s gonna bite anyone here…”

Faster than she thought, the Kaiju approaches her. It moves in cautious steps, but is steadily losing the edge of wariness. By the time it tentatively puts a claw on the bread, its eyes are all on the sandwich, and April can step around it without even a hiss in response.

She makes a hasty beeline for her backpack, digging out her phone frantically and thumbing open the screen. She gets open her text messages, and then slowly comes to a stop, fingers hovering.

Soft and chirrupy noises have taken the place of shrieks and hissing, and April glances behind her.

The little Kaiju is sitting with its legs in a clumsy fold, resembling lotus flower position, and is talking adamantly to itself as it dissects the second sandwich halve. Rather than scarf it down, it’s taking the time to examine and…  _narrate_ the pieces of the sandwich.

And, in a way, the sounds aren’t just sounds, but are closer to actual  _words_.

April is truly her father’s daughter, because she immediately thinks  _amazing,_  and  _is there more to discover here?_

April looks back into the open mouth of her backpack, seeing her baggy of apple slices inside.

Retrieving them, April creeps back towards the Kaijuling. Baby Kaiju? There have only ever been full grown monstrosities publically documented, nothing about early stages of their growth cycles. There’s no word for this creature yet, and even then. April suspects there’s been meddling with its DNA, since there’s no  _way_ anything could evolve to have such a drastic growth period between infant and adult.

Except it’s an alien, so. Earth rules might not apply.

April slowly comes to kneel a cautious distance from the little creature. She opens the baggy, and steels herself from startling as its four eyes whip around to stare at her.

Do Kaiju even like apples?

One way to find out.

April wordlessly holds out a slice of apple. It’s been kept fresh by lemon she’d squeezed onto it yesterday, when she didn’t have a damn fever.

“Want one?” she asks. There’s a pause, and then the Kaiju makes a sound of joyful interest.

Without further prompt or hesitation, it slips over to her on all fours, and sits back up to wrap a small clawed hand around the slice. April watches, fascinated and rapidly losing her own fears, as it nibbles at the snack food.

When the first slice is gone, and the little Kaiju is licking its approximation of lips with its pointed tongue, it holds out its hands and makes grabbing gestures and coos impatiently.

“Say please,” April says automatically, and realizes it’s because the behaviors remind her strikingly of a small child.

It stares at her, looking annoyed. April is stunned quietly that it can  _express annoyance,_  and not just want or fear something.

“Say please?” she requests again, experimentally.

“Sss… say p’ease?”

April’s mouth falls open, a taking a sharp breath in.

“Say p’ease?” the Kaiju repeats, high voiced and unpracticed. Mimicking her, but not perfectly, missing the harder to pronounce part of a new word, like a child would.

 _Like a_   _child would._

April hands over the next apple slice, and manages to mumble, “Yeah, that’s right. Say please. Good job.”

“Good job,” repeats back the Kaiju, nearly chirping it, and bites the new slice in half happily. April is still processing her shock as it shifts closer to her, pressing against her leg with its little ones and making grabby gestures again.

“Say p’ease,” it says with confidence, tail flicking against the floor in anticipation.

“…you’re very smart, aren’t you?” April says to it.

The little Kaiju coos and only has eyes for the apple slices. April hands another one over as requested. This time is a little different, though, as it catches her hand with its own free one. She holds perfectly still as it multitasks nibbling the fruit, and examining her pale pink palms and darker skin everywhere else.

April is not particularly afraid, she finds, watching the creature pick at her short finger nails with its wicked little claws.

“Say p’ease, good job,” it pronounces, apparently done with the examination. It grabs for the bag in April’s right hand, and April holds it away on instinct.

“No,” she tells it. It starts to sit up, reaching for it. “ _No,”_  April repeats, more firmly. “You ask nicely if you want more. Say please.”

The Kaiju’s face screws up in a pout, its big eyes squinting in annoyance. Its tail lashes for a moment, and then it says in a distinctly put upon voice, “Say  _p’ease?”_

Purely and clearly, that’s the voice of a fed up toddler not getting what they want, and going along because it’s the only way to get it.

April finds herself fighting a smile, and laughing a little. He looks so  _cute,_  so frustrated like that.

“Okay, you can have another, now,” she informs him, and gives another piece of apple to the Kaiju. He takes it, but manages to look sulky about it.

April’s knees are starting to cramp like this, and she shifts into a lotus position like her Kaiju friend. She moves away from him to do so, trying to avoid disturbing him with her careful movements, but is surprised when he moves right back next to her once she’s settled.

And then climbs into her lap, fearless and curious about the jacket she’s got on, and the chance to get more apples sooner. April is a little uncomfortable having a mouthful of sharp incisors and hands tipped in claws so close to her vitals, but that’s tempered by the excited tittering the Kaiju makes, picking at the undone zipper of her jacket.

He’s so  _curious_  about everything, now that he’s not scared out of his mind. It’s almost like the time April held a large parrot, when a conservationist moved into the apartment next to her and her dad- the huge bird had been noisy and curious, and just enough of a discomfort near her face it’d been a thrill to hold him.

It’s like that, right now, combined with the time she held a baby of a colleague her dad has. Exciting and a little scary, and part of her is worried she’ll upset things if she moves wrong.

April stifles a sound of pain as the Kaiju discovers her coils and tugs on a fistful. She teaches him again about the word  _no._

It’s only after he’s settled comfortably into her lap, chewing on the last of slices of apple, that April remembers she should probably call someone about this.

It’s made a little harder than usual to text, since  _somebody_  has decided the thing he wants most in the world is now her phone.

She’s still trying to explain that  _no_ , he can’t have it, and that tapping it rapidly with his claws is just going to scratch the screen-  _“Pads, you use the_ pads _of your fingers,”-_  when the door is all but kicked off its hinges behind them.

“ _There it is!”_  someone bellows, and April’s little Kaiju friend loses his cool.

The winding tail wrapped loosely around her arm is switched to her stomach, and April is treated to the feeling of being strangled around the midriff and claw tips nearly puncturing her jacket’s fabric.

“Ow, no, hey,” she says, as she gets unsteadily off the ground and backs hastily away from the door. She pats uselessly at the hard ridges of his back. “Dude, hey, I need to- breathe and stuff- ow-”

“Ms. O’Neil,  _stop moving!”_  commands the soldier, and oh joy, he’s got a gun. April thinks it’s a tranq gun, and neither it nor he and the other soldiers pouring in are doing anything to calm things down.

“April!” yells her dad, fighting his way through the clog of bodies in the doorway. His eyes are wide with fear as he catches sight of the Kaiju wrapped around his daughter, and looks about ready to throw up.

The little Kaiju shrieks, lighting up hostile purple again and baring its fangs at the intruders. Immediately the sound of safety catches clicking off are heard, and April throws up a hand. “Guys, stop it! You’re  _scaring him-!”_

A particularly brash soldier strides forwards, arm outstretched and aiming to rip the Kaiju off April forcefully, and the tail around April’s waist comes away in a whip quick slash.

The soldier cries out as a bright red seam of blood appears across his face, and April stares in shock at the long barb abruptly produced from the end of the tail.

“ _NO!”_   screams the little Kaiju, slashing its long thin barb in the air in front of them. “ _NO, NO, NO!”_

April hysterically thinks she taught him the word  _no_  a little too well.

“Hey- WHOA, okay, everyone just-” April takes a number of steps back from the panicking soldiers and her father, trying to keep people out of stabbing range of the tail barb. “-take a deep breath, okay? I’m fine, it’s cool, just stop freaking him out already.”

There’s a murmur of dissent, soldiers shifting uneasily as they try to find an angle to come at them from, and April hears a quiet hiccup beside her neck.

 _“No, no, no,”_  repeats her little friend, words shifting into desperate little growls and keens. He’s pressing close as possible to her, strong little limbs clinging tightly, and he’s trembling as he does.

His tail slashing in the air and bared teeth and brightly lit threat display all say  _animal, dangerous, monster…_  but the sobs underneath all that say scared little kid.

She raises her hand to run it down his shell-like back plates, turning her own back to everyone and shielding him. “It’s fine, it’s okay, shhh, calm down, buddy. We’re okay. We’re okay. No knifing anybody with your- tail. Thing. Okay? Just… gotta calm down. Just…  _shh,_  kiddo… it’s gonna be alright… you’ll be okay, I got you. You’re safe.”

April feels his tail stop slashing around, and slowly, carefully, come back to curl around her middle. She only feels a brief moment of fear  _she’ll_  get stabbed by the thin barb, but no pain comes as the tip curls around to her front.

There’s quiet, rapid conversation behind her, and April casts a glance over her shoulder as a harsher whisper-shout makes her friend stiffen in fear.

“Hey!” she snaps at everyone gathered. “Shut up and go away!” The stunned silence following that is satisfying on a level.

Not the politest thing she’s ever said, but she’s sick and exhausted by the emotional roller coaster and there’s a kid in her arms crying still. Not okay by any account.

Oh god the military made tiny Kaijus that are actually tiny  _babies_  and April is literally just some teenager. What the hell is she supposed to do about all this? The minute she lets go of him he’ll probably end up back in a lab- a lab her  _dad_ works in, does he  _know_  that this kid is a literal  _kid-?_

A hundred terrible scenarios flash across her mind about what might be done to her little friend, and April feels even sicker than she was already.

“…April? Are you alright?”

She looks over her shoulder again, at her carefully approaching father. His dark forehead has sweat sheen to it, and he’s darting glances between her and the Kaiju growling at him.

April shushes him again, and he quiets for the most part. He stills tightens his tail around her, though. Determined to stay, determined to defend.

Oh, but he’s so small, and clearly so young, and  _god,_  what even happened to create a creature like this? To create a  _person_  like this? A scaly little person with a tail and fangs and bioluminescence, who is terrified out of his mind and only trusts  _April._

“Yeah, I’m fine,” April finally responds, holding her friend in a gentle hug and wondering if she’s the first person to have ever done so.

“Did it… hurt you anywhere? Can you get it to-”

“He’s not an  _it,”_  April says firmly, feeling abruptly and fiercely protective. “He’s a little  _kid,_  dad. What the hell?”

_What the hell does the military want with him? What the hell can I do to prove he’s a person? What the hell did you do, dad?_

“Did you know he can talk?” April asks, angry and sad. “Did you know he learn words after only a few tries? Did you know  _anything_  like that about him?”

Her father is quiet for a moment, and then says, “No… no I didn’t. They weren’t supposed to be able to do those things.”

“…well he can,” April says, and hugs her little friend tighter. He makes a soft sound of confusion, and presses his cold flat nose to her neck, huffing in concern.

She takes a deep breath, and looks back again. “How many more?” she asks, uncaring that there’s still a few soldiers lingering in the doorway and clearly not on board with what’s happening.

“…three more,” her dad answers, a look of dread entering his expression. “We made four of them. They were only supposed to be subjects for observation and study. Kaiju on a smaller scale, with the ability to respond to communications and possibly even communicate back. But… it wasn’t supposed to be more than that.”

“What did you do to make him small and smart?” April asks, already knowing the answer.

“…we mixed human DNA into the sequence. It was a choice from above my station, hon, I swear. We didn’t know.”

April sighs, and wonders if any adults even try to remember the stuff science fiction and fantasy taught you about playing god with life.

“I think you did a lot more than make pocket-sized Kaiju, dad,” April says, petting her friend’s plated back as he makes a rumbly little purr against her shoulder.

Her dad lets out a ragged breath. “I’m starting to think that, too.”

 

 

 

April gets to keep holding her little friend- someone who turns out to be  _Donatello,_ according to the codename she drew out of a hat two months ago, back in her home apartment with her dad. He’d told her  _it’s for an upcoming project,_  and she’d thought the game of pulling famous artists out of a hat was just that. A game.

She named them all, all four of them, however indirectly and unknowingly. They’re only a handful of weeks old now- and already so  _big_  and  _smart,_ compared to human children- but they’re still so… young. Vulnerable.

April cradles Donatello until he falls asleep, nestled against her and playing with her shoulder length coils. Her father sends the soldiers out of the room, and someone important looking shows up in a uniform with a lot of medals and stripes on it.

April clutches Donatello close, who refuses to relinquish his own desperate clutch, and tries to talk a woman nearly three times her age around to April’s point of view.

It doesn’t work how she wants it to, but there’s room for future debate. More discussions and tests to be conducted, and a  _chance._

April is going to seize that chance and sink her teeth into it and refuse to let go, much like how Donatello does when he gets the idea to starting biting her hair.

She coaxes him off that idea by heckling her dad into handing over one of the hard candies he’s always got in his pockets. It goes over well, and from the intent expression of her father, and his fellow scientists peering in through the doorway, this is Donatello’s first experience with sugary sweets.

He likes it. A lot. Crunching it between his incisors and asking for more afterwards, using his most polite so far,  _“Say p’ease?”_

April’s dad and his boss nearly fall out of their chairs at that. One of the scientists in the doorway clutches his chest and just about faints. It’s a brief spell of relief from the seriousness of things, and April makes sure Donatello gets the candy he so politely asked for.

Donatello is a little heavy by the time they lead her back to his containment cell, which is a room a little smaller than a child’s would be. And it’s bare of anything but a pet bed and some blankets shoved into a corner.

April feels so, so very bad for peeling her sleeping friend off herself, and gently lowering him to rest in the bed. She covers him up with the blankets, and sees him curl into a little ball underneath.

April is stuck for a moment, just watching the blankets rise and fall with his breathing. She doesn’t know what his future from this point will be like, and that scares the daylights out of her.

It only took about two hours for her to get this attached. God knows what she’ll feel like in another week, or less.

It’s hard to get up and walk out, but the rules are that the tests get done before anything is concrete, and that includes April staying away to not contaminate the procedure.

April is tired, still feverish, and now she’s angrily sad on top of all that. She puts one foot in front of the other, and forces herself to make it home before lying down and passing out from sheer exhaustion.

April has uneasy dreams that night, blurry and unhappy, and continues to until she sees Donatello again, and knows he’s going to be okay. That they all will be, him and his incredible siblings.

 

 

 

The next time she picks up Donatello, April is certain she’d never put him down if she could. Him, or any of the other little Kaiju children. Small, and strange, and so in need of somebody to love them.

Of course, within a few years, she can’t even hope to carry around any of them. By that point, they can lift  _her,_  and do so just to show off.

But she doesn’t forget the first time few times, how it felt to have Donnie’s tail coil around her midriff and curl tightly there. How it felt to have Raph’s puppyishly big hands hold onto hers as they walked through the hall. How it felt when Leo would cling to her legs and refuse to let go. How it felt to have Mikey clamber up her back and demand piggyback rides as long as he could get them.

When they’re older, they tend more to pick up  _April_  and carry her around. It’s easy, since they double in size within the first two years, and then keep going until they tower over everybody on base.

April never does forget, though. And never wants to.


	2. "do kaiju even like apples?" part 2: yes they do and they want more.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> tiny kaiju Donnie, enough said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> before i do anything more, i ended up writing a sequel to the first story from the perspective of donnie.
> 
> presenting itty bitty kaiju babies, at least in passing.

Elsewhere, a small person wakes up, and is confused at being alone again. He’d thought that one was different. That one gave him nice things to eat, and was soft and quiet and didn’t stick anything sharp into his scales.

He’d thought maybe she would stay. Or he’d stay with her.

Maybe they could have gone and seen the Others he knows are there, but hasn’t ever seen or actually heard. Maybe she would have given the Others nice foods and soft words, too.

He lies forlornly in his bed for a long time, sad and alone and feeling sorry for himself for failing to get to the Others. He didn’t even make it into the place he knows is on the other side of the wall, or to the Other he knows is there.

He gets up, after a long time in silence and stillness, and wanders over to the wall with a sometimes-hole-in-the-wall. He stands up tall and examines the place he’d stabbed a bunch of times to make it open, and finds all his hard work gone.

He extends his barb, and aims his tail at the place he’d damaged before. This time, it just jars the tip of his barb and makes him squeak in pain and retreat. The big things  _fixed it,_  or even worse,  _ruined it_.

It’s not fair. They can go and come as they want, why can’t  _he?_

He wants to see the Others. He wants to see the good big thing again. He wants more food.

He doesn’t get any of those things. Just a big empty place all to himself and no one anywhere near him.

“No,” he says to the empty room. “No. No, no.”

It doesn’t answer back, but he hears the little black thing in the ceiling corner whirr a little, focusing on him.

He hisses at it, and goes to the wall with the Other on the other side of it.

He flops down dejectedly on his side, sniffling and mad. The Other on the other side is there, and agitated, and feels him being upset, too.

He tried to make it to the Other. He tried very hard and almost did it, except the big things came and chased him and he had to hide in a new place with a bad hole in the sometimes-hole-in-the-wall. It only took two stabs to open it.

And then he got distracted, by her. The different big thing. The nice one, with good food and interesting everything.

He can’t articulate the words yet, but Donatello knows he likes her poofy hair a lot. Even if it tastes bad.

The Other is against the wall, too, now. Later, he’ll know this Other is Raphael. For now, the Other is an Other, and he knows the Other is concerned and can tell the plan went wrong.

He failed. He got distracted and wasn’t fast enough, and now they won’t ever get to meet. He’ll stay alone in his empty space forever and never meet the Other on the other side of the wall.

He misses the nice her, the big thing her who held him and had food. She was warm and good and protected him when big things came to find and catch him.

He misses her. He misses her so very much.

He cries and hiccups and puts his face under his arms, curling into a ball of upset and hurt and confusion. The Other on the other side of the wall is more concerned now, wants to be nearer, but can’t because the wall is there and always will be there.

He cries and is lonely and in pain and hates everything for a long time, until he gets tired and goes back to sleep again. He doesn’t stop thinking about the her that was good and nice, even after many sleeps and different meals and big things coming into his space.

Except, they don’t just stick sharp things in him this time.

They talk to him, like the good her. And offer new food, and a new  _thing_  he doesn’t know.

It makes shapes when he pulls its tip across the flat sheet of easily torn white, and even makes shapes on the floor, and walls, and his own scales…

Donatello learns how to draw basic shapes within a few hours, and then moves onto things he knows. Himself, his bed, the wall, the sometimes-hole in the other wall, the her that is nice…

Then he learns writing, along with words, and then  _math,_  and other new amazing things, and he comes to understand a self that is himself.

The her that is good and nice and who holds him comes back before most of those things, after he’s lain listlessly for too many hours and not eaten enough food to have energy anyway, and he learns her name. And his own.

“April,” he says, after several tries to get it right. And she smiles at him.

“Donatello,” she says in return, pointing at him. Donatello smiles back, flashing little fangs and feeling the happiest he’s ever been. Even happier than when he got his first markers, and drew all over every inch of his room.

She picks him up when he asks, and her hair is soft and bouncy against his face like he remembers it being. April carries him out of his room, and finally,  _finally,_ the wall between him and the Other stops being a problem.

“Let’s meet your brother, shall we?” April says, lots of new words all at once, and opens the door between them and the Other.

Donatello is excited, and a little scared, but mostly excited.

The Other’s room has lots of deep gouges in the walls, torn up papers and crushed markers, and has one thing in it that is like Donatello but not.

It yells a lot.

It yells a lot at  _April._

So Donatello smacks it in the face with his tail when it gets too close and hisses.

Which just makes it yell _louder._

Terrible. Donatello wants to put the wall back between them now.

April just sighs, scolds him, and scolds the Other who keeps yelling and yelling and  _yelling._  And then things get quieter, and Donatello reluctantly lets April put him on the ground.

“Donatello,” April says gently, putting a hand on his back and pushing him forwards a step, “this is Raphael. He’s your brother, so no more hitting, okay?”

Raphael, who is wider and heavier than Donatello, and has  _no tail,_  bares his teeth. Donatello bares his own, almost in an angry snarl, but then realizes that Raphael is trying to  _smile_. Like April is.

Smiling is new. No other human smiled at them before April.

Donatello smiles back at Raphael, who is the Other on the other side of the wall, and maybe kind of okay when he’s not yelling.

The next one, however, is  _not_  okay, because he  _never_  shuts up and is  _always_ getting in the way and knocks Donatello over right away when they meet. Donatello doesn’t like Michelangelo at first, at  _all._

Or Leonardo, who is spiny and snappy, and clings to April’s leg stubbornly, even when Donatello says he needs to go away, he was here  _first._

But.

Its better. Better than sitting in his empty room alone and sad, and better than just  _knowing_  the Others are there _,_ but never seeing them.

Donatello likes it better, even if he has to share April, and  _say please_  when he wants something someone else has, and gets his tail stepped on or rolled over or  _sat on_  if he’s not careful.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> my sons.
> 
> i'll do more with the others soon (probably a story of april meeting them all individually, if only through a video camera feed), but i've got a couple other things to get done first + hammer out the details of leo and raph's designs.


	3. study buddy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> stress relief time in the form of sleepy babes.

It’s easier to do homework when someone isn’t grabbing at your jeans, thick little claws scratching the material and probably putting holes.

April is, quite sincerely, trying to get her homework done. The faster she works and the better she performs in school, the closer her dream of getting a degree in biology is (with specialization for xenobiology, seeing as the study of kaiju was instituted not more than two years after the war started). Partially because of her dad’s career, since she grew up in that kind of environment. Partially because of the brothers.

One of which is interrupting her study session, taking place in the latter half of the evening. Her temples are starting to throb a little from the cramming, but she’s got a history test on Friday and that’s never been her strong suit.

The pair of gold eyes staring up at her is a welcome distraction, if counterproductive; their owner’s chin propped on her thigh and big hands clenched in the loose jeans she’s wearing.

“Up,” demands the tiny (compared to his DNA donors at least) kaiju.

“I’m studying, buddy,” April chides him, but reaches to run a hand over Raph’s bumpy head. The twin lines of ridges on either side of his skull massage her sore palm.

“You can hold me at- at the same time,” he points out, pushing his head into her hand. Which is cute, like it always is, except he loses balance a little on his feet and lists sideways- which definitely puts runs in April’s jeans as he stabilizes himself.

“Does it gotta be _now?”_ she asks, allowing a slight whine because studying for her weak subjects _sucks,_ and she just wants to get it over with.

“ _Yes!”_

From the tone of his voice, April guesses she won’t be able to convince him to go back to playing with his brothers in their play room.

“Fine, but _only_ if you don’t squirm,” she tells him firmly.

“I won’t,” he assures her, even though he always does.

With some effort- all four of them are getting _big,_ and they’re barely more than two years old- April lifts Raph up into her lap. The thick cartilage plates on his back scrape against her shirt a little, and as he’s positioning himself the two pseudo claws jutting from the backs of his hands jab their dull edges into her stomach. April bears with it, used to the treatment by this point.

When he’s seemingly finished squirming to get comfortable against her front, April leans back in her chair, looking down at her cuddle buddy. “You done?”

“Yeah,” he answers, arms wrapped around her middle and scaly head pillowed on her chest. It’s kind of like having a mildly pointy koala on top of her, except smart as a four year old human and prone to strong fits of emotion. Also: kind of heavy. Raph is a _solid_ little guy, and April’s father estimates when he’s older his final growth spurts will be impressive to say the least.

Giving his back a few strokes, April returns to her efforts to memorize everything she’s been procrastinating. April has to prop her textbook upright on the table to keep reading, given to be comfortable with the weight of her little friend she has to be leaning backwards. As usual, in a shitty plastic chair, because the military still won’t pay for nicer furniture in the lab or any of its adjacent rooms.

At least they’d managed to wrestle funding for a proper children’s play room for the boys. Their rooms ( _room_ often times _,_ given they always managed to have a sleepover in one of them, despite the scientists’ best efforts) had been furnished into something resembling a human child’s bedroom, too; with toys and bookshelves and actual beds. Just with… special customizations here and there, since Mikey slept in a ball, and Raph only on his belly, and Donnie in a cat’s curl, and Leo always managed to stab his mattress if they didn’t get strong enough sheet fabrics…

Speaking of sleeping.

After glancing at the clock, and wagering just how much lack of blood flow her legs now have, April figures it’s been close to forty-five minutes since Raph came and interrupted her. Almost half past eight, meaning his bedtime had already passed by.

Which is evident, since Raph is slack jawed and breathing peacefully in and out. Checking the sharp incisors that fill his mouth, April notes with disapproval that he didn’t brush after dinner. Again.

But, his chubby cheeks and soft sleeping expression force her to forgive him. April puts down her textbook, wrists cramping from the position anyway; taking notes on her phone and keeping the textbook steady have wrought their damage, and her brain is mush anyway. Time to quit.

“Okay, _uuuup_ we go,” April murmurs softly, locking her arms under Raph’s weighty little body and standing up from her chair. Immediately, every part of her lower body that fell asleep buzzes irritably, and April hisses between her teeth. _Ow_ , can’t feel feet or thighs, _ow ow ow…_

The lab is quiet as they leave the side room, empty except for two scientists on the far left of the wide space. Both women are deeply focused on their paperwork, probably recording today’s results from observing the brothers, and April passes through without a hello or goodbye.

Down a few hallways, April makes her journey to the places her little brothers are actually allowed to roam freely. Passing each of the brothers’ rooms one by one, April searches for which of the beds has been chosen tonight.

Raph snuffles in her ear, complaining sleepily about being moved. April kisses his head and tries to keep him steadier in her arms.

It’s Mikey’s room today, which is full of strewn soldiers and kaiju figurines, as well as Barbie dolls. April can only guess what the game was tonight, but the intricately built block city and half collapsed chair and blanket fort tells her it was probably _The Big Friendly Giant_ again. Her boys really do love that movie, and she plays it as many times in a row as she’s requested; even if she’s gotten a little tired of hearing Mikey recount the scene to her about bubbles that make super powerful farts.

With Leo’s bed having clearly been dragged all the way from his room next door, the three siblings are curled up in their favored sleeping positions with their eyes shut. Mikey’s burrowed into a blanket nest, a loose ball of flexible cartilage and inhuman spinal alignment. On either side of his nest atop Leo’s flat but comfy futon, the futon’s owner is using the edge of the nest to cover himself, and Donnie has curled into a semi-circle around it.

With some difficulty of detaching his sleepy but strong grip, April lowers Raph to splay out on his belly next to the pile of sleeping kaiju. Donnie, who is a light sleeper no matter how they tire him out before bedtime, wakes at the disturbance. But, when he sees it’s just April and his brothers, he simply yawns, lifts himself up in a cattish stretch, and moves over to curl up against Raph instead of the blankets. Better heat source, and the least likely to stab or bowl him over when they all wake up again.

April smiles, the warm glow she’s become accustomed to forming in her chest.

Gathering up the remaining blanket in Mikey’s soft hollow of a bed, she spreads them over the two exposed siblings, and pulls the ones on Leo into a better position. None of them stir as she does, and that’s sweet feeling proof of their trust in her.

Turning off the light of the room, April makes sure she shuts the door silently as possible.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i love inserting my own childhood favorites into fics. the BFG was always a frequent re-watch in my home.


	4. beach day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> like that obligatory episode every slice-of-life anime has, except it's not actually set on a beach and everyone's a lizard.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow this fic got way more kudos than i ever thought it would. howdy yall, welcome to my extremely self-indulgent au. here's some plotless fic for your enjoyment.

“Beach day, beach day!”

“It’s not the beach, Mikey, it’s _inside_ for one thing- and we couldn’t go to the real beach even if we wanted to.”

“They painted it like a beach, I’m gonna call it a beach. _Beach_.”

“I heard that, Mikey. Swearing isn’t okay even if it’s only technically a bad word.”

Donnie snickers behind his hand as Mikey and Leo are gently separated; April placing herself between them both and taking their hands in hers. Ensuring they don’t start trouble before they’ve even gotten out of the labs. Taking his cue from their big sister, Donnie offers his tail to Raph for holding onto, while Donnie grabs the back of April’s jacket. With everyone secured into a clump, they start to amble their way through the long halls of the base.

Donnie’s backpack is filled with towels, snacks, and his special swim trunks. All neatly folded and packed together. Leo’s is similarly tidy, whereas Raph and Mikey’s bags are barely holding themselves shut, stuffed full without much order at all. Of course, once they get to the pool, it won’t matter whose packing skills are better or not. Everything will get tossed everywhere, and at least one of them will forget something behind when they go.

Donnie’s chest is filled with jittery excitement. Of all their exercises, the pool is his absolute favorite. It’s been nearly two weeks since they last got to swim, too, and the almost too-small tub they wash in doesn’t count as swimming anymore, no matter what Mr. O’Neil tries to tell them.

The people they pass as they walk get out of the way quickly, or stop and stare the entire time. Donnie knows they don’t mean harm by it (probably), but it’s still uncomfortable to be watched like this. It makes his duck his head and hold his secondary eyes shut tight. From how Raph’s hand squeezes at Donnie’s tail, his brothers likely feel just as uncomfortable.

Its why, since they started realizing that some people here aren’t like the O’Neils, Donnie and his brothers only wander from their rooms in the lab when it’s late, when people will be busy or gone for the night. Except, of course, on beach days. It’s worth the stares in exchange for hours of watery fun.

The smells of chlorine greets Donnie a full hall and a half from the pool; refreshing as always. His brothers pick up the scent about the same time, doubling in their cavalier excitement. Unable to contain himself any longer, Mikey starts tugging April forwards by the hand to hurry along- by extension dragging along everyone else holding onto their sister.

When they get there, the twenty by ten meter pool is as perfectly blue as Donnie remembered it to be. Originally, it’d only been used by soldiers for workouts, but now that the four of them are here, they get to play in it, too. With supervision, of course, but literally everything they do has to be supervised, so they don’t really care.

And their supervision comes in the form of _April_ , who is their favorite human anyway, so they extra don’t care.

Mikey goes charging towards the pool as soon as April lets go of him. Not even their sister yelling, “ _Put your trunks on first, Mikey!”_ slows him down.

Mikey leaps into the air, curling into a ball- and hits the water with a cut off scream of elation. The resulting splash gets everyone wet, speckling Donnie’s glasses with water and drenching Leo and April. Raph, who’d been standing behind them all, gets hardly a droplet on him.

This doesn’t stop him from whining just as much as Leo, about Mikey getting their dry clothes _wet_. Donnie just takes off his glasses to tuck them into his bag, and with a surreptitious glance around them for anyone nearby, opens all four of his eyes. The room takes on a wider spectrum of colors and depth, and he mentally starts a countdown to when he’ll begin to get a migraine for it.

“Well, now what’re you gonna do? You got your pants and towels all wet,” April says as Mikey treads water in the shallow end. She’s smiling at Donnie’s little brother, fond and exasperated.

Mikey looks to where his bag is floating- slowly sinking, really- in the water. Donnie sees his brother visibly thinking about the consequences of his actions, before Mikey just shrugs. “Guess I’m gonna walk back wet.”

“I’m sure the custodial will love you for that,” April scolds with a grin, heading over to retrieve the bag and their brother from the pool. While Mikey is hauled out, Donnie opts to follow Leo and Raph’s lead to the changing room.

Anticipation is bubbling up in him, frothy energy making him nearly jitter as he dresses. If he didn’t mind walking around in wet clothes, Donnie would have jumped right into the pool, too. He settles for tossing his pants off- narrowly missing Raph’s head as they all rush to get dressed- and hiking up his trunks quickly as possible.

Securing the string that goes above his tail, so they don’t slip off, Donnie finishes before both of his brothers and hurries back out of the change room. Leo and Raph call after him about not waiting for them, and Mikey whines at Donnie as they pass each other going opposite directions. April just calls after him to “- _walk on the deck,_ damn it, Donnie!”

Donnie can’t bring himself to listen to the rule. He’s too busy dropping onto all fours, sprinting the remaining feet to the pool, and diving in headfirst.

The cool water welcomes him, reducing gravity and sending a pleasant chill through his body. His clear eyelids have shut of their own accord, and he feels the gentle shiver that happens whenever he’s underwater- starting in his chest, and expanding from there.

He can climb and run on land fine, but being _in the water_ … it’s different. Like he was made to this, like birds are made to fly and fish are made to swim.

Crocodiles swim. Donnie looks like a crocodile, sort of, and he swims like one, too. Moving his long, powerful tail back and forth to propel himself through the water. Maybe, kaiju are related to crocodiles? Distantly, of course, but _maybe?_

Donnie quietly hopes they are, because then at least some of him will have come from earth.

He swims for the deep end of the pool, coasting along the bottom and cutting through the water with ease. There are dull thuds against the surface behind him, signalling the entrance of his brothers. Donnie smirks and twists around, looking back at them.

Raph is on the bottom of the pool already, kicking off and treading with effort to reach the surface again. He used to have an easier time with that, but now that they’re all nearly seven years old, Raph is getting heavy. Heavy enough no one can lift him, and he has a hard time swimming properly. Not like Donnie, who floats freely and without issue.

Leo is light enough to float as well, and the sharp spines along his forearms are extended out and forwards in the water as he swims. The vestigial fins or wings (they can’t tell, exactly) make it easier for him to move around, bringing him up to speed with April, and presenting a not too bad challenge to Donnie’s maneuverability. Though, his short little tail is no match for Donnie’s. It can’t even pick stuff up, let alone do everything Donnie’s can.

Mikey, like Raph, isn’t exactly suited for water. His tail is decently long, and wide enough to be a paddle. But it doesn’t do much about his physiology being A) heavy, and B) like the little pill bugs they found under the couch one time (which Leo then ate, before April could stop him). He and Raph are stuck being the slowpokes, which Donnie and Leo _never_ miss a chance to tease them about during marco-polo.

As April’s dark legs breach the water, standing out among all the green bodies around her, Donnie decides to rejoin the group and lurk some more later. And, by rejoin the group, he means play his favorite game in his favorite place: _sneak attack._

Coiling up, Donnie launches himself back towards the shallow end. He pretends in his mind he’s a shark, about to take a chomp out of his prey- or maybe a crocodile, heading in to drag victims into a death roll.

When he bursts out of the water, obviously he doesn’t do either of those things. He lands on April’s back with precise aim, dunking his big sister underwater as she shrieks. She grabs him around the waist while they’re both under, holding him in a hug as she stands back up. April’s hair hangs in her eyes, dripping and dark, and she spits out a mouthful of water. Donnie grins cheekily at her half hidden smile.

“You having fun, huh?” she says, flicking a wet strand of curl from her face.

“Yep! I gotchu,” Donnie says proudly, winding his tail around her leg and carefully locking his arms around her neck. He’s a lot bigger than he was when he was a baby; the only place April can still lift him is in this pool, now that he’s nearly up to her shoulder in height.

April laughs, giving his forehead a kiss. “Oh, yeah, you definitely got me. Now… how ‘bout you help me get your brothers?”

“ _No!”_ Mikey shrieks in fear, and dives underwater to make for the deep end. Leo and Raph, having missed most of the conversation while they were on the bottom of the pool again, give a confused look after their brother.

Donnie grins wickedly, matching April’s expression, and they both pounce on the two unsuspecting kaiju. Leo and Raph go down with twin cries of surprise, not fast enough to evade the attack.

Donnie gets Leo in a playful death roll, twisting his brother around underwater. Leo, when he finally wrestles free, gives him a scathing look for it. Donnie just laughs bubbles in his face, letting his brother shove him away.

When they resurface, April has Raph in a lock and is giving his cheek a noisy raspberry- Raph being an unwilling recipient of said raspberry kisses, and struggling futilely against them.

“ _Gross!”_ Raph yells, shoving back against the assaulting affection. Though, not with his full strength. His claws don’t even scratch April as he struggles, and if he really wanted to, Donnie knows his brother could’ve broken their sister’s hold on him right from the start.

But Raph wouldn’t have done that, even if he’s embarrassed about this. The scars on the backs of his hands have only just finished healing completely, and the one across April’s bicep is still shiny and tender. It’s good to see Raph be comfortable roughhousing with their sister again, even if he holds back way more than he did in the past. Things are really starting to feel normal for them all once more.

_“BOOYAKASHA!”_

Donnie whirls, and regrets that they let Mikey get out of their sights. He shuts his eyes and rides out the cascading wave from Mikey’s cannonball, floating backwards with the force of impact. When Mikey resurfaces, laughing madly, Donnie exchanges a sly glance with Leo nearby. His older brother nods, letting a smirk flit across his face.

Mikey’s crowing victory about splashing them all is cut short, as Donnie and Leo take advantage of their faster swimming and tackle their brother together. Their youngest family member is shoved underwater in a flurry of bubbles and limbs, curling into a ball to protect himself and sinking down without further fight. Which basically ruins the game of dunking him, since it’s no fun if the other person doesn’t try dunking you back _._

Donnie sticks out his pointed tongue, flicking his tail and swimming away from his brothers. The water pressure around him increases as he hits the deepest point again; comfortable and cool. Touching down briefly, he shoots back up to the surface underneath the diving board.

Donnie blinks in the light of the room, catching every bit of movement with all of his eyes open. His brothers have gotten out of the pool, retrieving the few toys that’ve been bought for them to play with here. April, meanwhile, is talking to someone in a lab coat. The scientist is named Dr. Rileston, and is one of the nicer adults on staff. Donnie doesn’t appreciate her interrupting them, though, and reflexively shuts his second set of eyes as the scientist glances at him.

She looks at him for a moment, and- it’s the stare of someone who, while she isn’t looking at him like a monster, isn’t looking at him like a person, either. Ever since they’d found out just what a _kaiju_ really is… Donnie has finally been able to properly differentiate between the types of people working here.

The ones who see them as people, the ones who see them as curiosities, and the ones who see them as monsters.

April sees them as people. And so does her dad, and so does master Splinter. Some of the other scientists, too, but they’re far and few between.

The ones that are on the far opposite of the spectrum, the ones who speak in hushed tones and make all four of them uncomfortable to be around… Donnie wishes they’d just leave already. If the humans hate them so much, why stick around and make everyone miserable for it? He doesn’t get it, and thinking about it makes his happy mood sour a little.

Donnie watches April talk with Dr. Rileston a moment longer, reading their lips and deducing what the topic is. It’s the same as always whenever April takes them for activities- scientific feedback about the four of them. If they’ve shown any changes since the last swim, whether someone’s showing new powers again… the usual stuff.

Donnie grimaces, diving back underwater to escape.

It’s not that he doesn’t understand the _why_ of doing reports about every little thing they do. Or the increased caution about their maturation, ever since the… _incident_. But it still feels bad, having even fun things invaded by tests and probing questions.

Donnie closes all four of his eyes, spinning in a somersault and letting himself lose all sense of direction. He pretends, just for a few moments, that he’s very, very far away from the labs and the scientists, and that there’s nothing in the world but him and the black void he’s floating in.

 

 

 

Something is slapping the surface of the pool, with a distant voice accompanying it. Someone is trying to get his attention.

Donnie opens his eyes, coming out of the almost meditative nap he’d been in. Lazily flicking his tail, he ascends from the depths of the pool. As he brings his eyes above water, he glances around for the intrusion to his swim time.

April waves at him from the deck, crouching with her knees to her chest. Beckoning him over. Feeling a smile curl his lips, Donnie obliges, smoothly paddling over to his sister. He grasps the edge as he gets there, raising his head out of the water. “Hi, April.”

“Hey, kiddo,” April says, reaches down to run a hand down his cheek. Donnie hums and pushes into her palm, feeling the warmth contrast with the pleasant coolness of the pool that’s settled in him. She smiles, faintly freckled cheeks dimpling. “You know, you’re gonna turn into a prune one of these days, swimming so much.”

“Fine by me,” Donnie replies, resisting the urge to point out that his scales can’t actually wrinkle. His sister draws her hand away, and he sighs, knowing his peaceful time alone is up. “Let me guess, I have to get out, now?”

“Sorry, bud,” April says with an apologetic expression, “everyone else is headin’ to bed for the night. You still gotta get that paperwork back to my dad before everything’s closed up.” When Donnie groans, April just shakes her head. “After so many years doing it, I’d’ve hoped you’d finally figure out how to keep up with your reports, Donnie.”

“I have other stuff to work on, I just forget about it sometimes,” Donnie defends. Which is absolutely true, because his passion projects are _far_ more interesting than submitting reports on his own physiology, which he already knows like the back of his hand. But, the facility doesn’t like it when they’re not documenting every single aspect of his life, so. The paperwork will never end.

His sister rolls her eyes at his stalling. “Out, Donnie.”

He’s not happy about it, but he listens to what he’s told. And he’d really been enjoying the swim, too.

April backs up as he puts his elbows over the pool edge, hauling himself out with minimal effort. As he stands up, dripping excess water everywhere, he rises to be a full head and a half taller than his big sister. Who, now that he’s fourteen and had growth spurts to spate, isn’t quite as ‘big’ as she used to be.

April, having walked over to the chair Donnie left his things on, tosses the huge beach towels at him. “If you dry off quick, there might still be some dessert leftovers when you get back. And you missed dinner again, by the way.”

“Oh, did I?” Donnie questions, draping one towel around his shoulders. The other is for drying off his long tail, which is a task and a half by itself. “And no one came to get me? Rude.”

“That’s what you get for wandering off without saying where you’re going, dork. You’re just lucky Leo felt like saving you from starving; he asked the cooks really nicely to let him take back your share.”

“And did he perhaps ‘sample’ from my share?”

“There might be a distinct possibility of that, yeah.”

Donnie sighs, but he does maybe deserve the loss of food. After all, he _did_ ditch a group workout to go swimming alone for a few hours. It’s just- it’s so _quiet_ and _peaceful_ , under the water. Whereas his thoughts whirl and build themselves every other moment of the day, swimming sets everything else aside. There’s just him, the water, and how his body cuts through it like it was meant to.

Donnie isn’t completely comfortable with some aspects of his genetic heritage, but aquatic affinity is one he can gladly tolerate.

April hands him his glasses, and Donnie slips the strap around the back of his head. As the lenses slide into place in front of his primary eyes, he shuts the secondary set, and lets the world fade to a manageable level of intensity. The green of April’s sweater and the slight coppery tint to her hair loses some of their vibrancy, but her fond smile doesn’t.

Donnie can’t recall a single time she didn’t smile at them like that. With care, with love. Even if others have faltered at the sight of them, cringed away even just ever so slightly from the kaiju spawn in the room- April never, ever has.

That she let them call her their _big sister_ , practically from the start of memory, is as equally precious as her unwavering smiles.

“C’mon, if we jog maybe there’ll be some of the Neapolitan ice cream,” April encourages, gathering Donnie’s pants and tossing them at him, too.

“With Mikey in the same room as it?” Donnie snorts disbelievingly. “I doubt it’s lasted the time it took you to walk here.”

“Well, there’s always the vanilla and chocolate sauce.”

This is true, and dessert before his dinner is a tempting treat indeed. Even if it means he’ll have to balance both parts of the meal while he types up a report.

Donnie towels off best he can, skipping putting on dry pants for the sake of speed. Though he’s disappointed still about cutting his swim off, Donnie is still happy enough to follow April from the pool, and flicks the light switch off with his tail before he shuts the door behind them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you know what i wish? that i could swim in the water like a snake or lizard. i came up with this chapter when i was looking at a pool and thinking longingly of how neat it would be to not have to thrash my way through water all awkwardly mammalianlike.
> 
> anyway, thanks for stopping by again for this hot mess of an au. guess at some point i'll elaborate on what i vagued about in this chapter. :)

**Author's Note:**

> [come find me on tumblr to learn more about this AU & ask any questions you've got.](https://onthespectrumwriting.tumblr.com/)


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